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75-Year-Old Cuban Immigrant Dies in ICE Custody; Powell: Fed Would've Cut Rates This Year If Not for Trump Tariffs; USAID Closure Could Contribute to 14 Million Deaths in 5 Years. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 01, 2025 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Krome Detention Center, which in recent weeks has been in the spotlight for moments like this one. Around the time of Perez's arrest, local media captured this demonstration. It's a group of detainees at Krome standing in what you can see is an SOS formation, essentially asking for help.

According to a medical intake completed the day after Perez's arrest, he had been diagnosed with multiple health problems. His former partner, Maria Alaniz, told the Miami Herald that the 75-year-old complained of severe overcrowding at Krome and of there not being enough beds and him having to sleep on the floor.

About two weeks after entering Krome, Perez had to be taken to a local hospital where ICE says that he was admitted with unstable angina, cardiac issues that could lead to a heart attack.

ICE says that he was discharged last Wednesday, but then the next day he reported chest pains and suffered a medical emergency. Rescue crews were able to revive him and then transfer him to a local hospital for treatment, but a short time later he was pronounced dead. So why was this 75-year-old man found inadmissible into the United States after being here for almost 60 years?

It may be because some 40 years ago in the early 1980s, Perez was convicted twice for possession of a controlled substance. Court records uncovered by the Miami Herald show that in one of those cases, he and another person were stopped on a boat and charged with possession and intent to distribute some 1,500 pounds of marijuana. At the same time, a judge sentenced him to 18 months in prison with two years probation.

A family member told the Herald that the stint in prison actually gave Perez the opportunity to turn his life around and he became an excellent person who helped his loved ones, especially the young ones, learn to swim and fish.

In a letter notifying Congress that he'd passed, ICE says that quote, It remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments. Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment that individuals arrive throughout the entirety of their stay.

Here's the president's border czar, Tom Homan, at the White House when he was asked about Perez's case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S BORDER CZAR: I'm unaware of that. I'm not aware of that. I mean, people die in ICE custody. People die in county jail. People die in state prisons. I mean, if you look at, you know, when I was ICE director and we drilled down that, the question should be, how many lives does ICE save?

Because when they go in detention, we find many with diseases and stuff that we deal with right away to prevent that. So I'm not aware of that specific case, but I'll say this, people can argue with me all they want, but the facts are the facts. I think that politicians in New Jersey found this out that we have the highest detention standards in the industry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The official cause of death for Isidro Perez is still being investigated. His family, though, has questions, including his stepdaughter, who told the Miami Herald, quote, I don't understand what's really going on. We're all human. Why are they picking up 75- year-old people?

Joining me now to discuss is Claire Healy. She's an Esserman investigative fellow at the Miami Herald, and also John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director under President Obama. Thank you both for being with us.

John, with the information that we've gathered on Isidro Perez, do you believe that he was a public safety threat or a national security threat, someone who needed to be removed from the United States?

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Boris, no, I certainly don't think he's a public safety threat. I think one of the that people don't understand about immigration detention is often two things. One is obviously this administration has taken an approach of detaining everybody.

However, even after you're detained by ICE, certain individuals are eligible for bond hearings before immigration judges. But oftentimes, that eligibility hinges on how you enter the United States. In this case, he was paroled into the United States, and most likely he was deemed not bond eligible.

I think this is a larger issue that we need to look at writ large, and whether you're for immigration detention -- or sorry -- for this mass deportation plan, or against a Republican or Democrat, we all should question why are we relying so heavily on detention, especially when, you know, it's so much more expensive. It's not necessary, and ankle bracelets have proven to be a very effective deterrent. The final thing is it's very hard to operate a detention system that is entirely safe.

You're just congregating lots of people in an area where it's difficult to provide medical treatment. Of course, those issues are exacerbated right now by the overcrowding that we're seeing in the ICE facilities.

SANCHEZ: Claire, I should tell you that I grew up in Miami, and as a kid growing up, you would hear horror stories about what happened at Krome. It was almost like a haunted house, the folklore that would come out of there. Talk to us about that facility.

What do we know about it?

[15:35:00]

CLAIRE HEALY, ESSERMAN INVESTIGATIVE FELLOW, THE MIAMI HERALD: Yes, so Krome is located in the Everglades outside of Miami, and around February, we started hearing reports from detainees talking about severe overcrowding, people sleeping on the floor in overcrowded rooms. My colleagues and I spoke with three former detainees in March and lawyers for three more, and they said that the conditions were extremely unsanitary.

People were crowded in these very packed rooms. And one woman who was deported to Honduras said that a group of women were left overnight on a bus. It was so crowded, and they were forced to urinate in their seats in shackles.

And so, we know from what they were describing that this is a facility that was really pushed to its brink. And then we've been hearing similar reports lately. Actually, Isidro Perez, before he passed away, told his family that he had been sleeping on the floor in a crowded room when he first got to Krome.

So we're hearing similar stories now. And when we talk about deaths across the country, there have been 10 in 2025 so far. Five have been in Florida, and three of those five were detained at Krome prior to their death.

SANCHEZ: John, if the administration is trying to round up everyone who's in the country who doesn't have permission to be here, and these cases like this one and others wind up being sort of a deterrent to migrants who are thinking of coming to the United States or perhaps as an example of why people who are undocumented in the United States should self-deport, what is at risk with cases like this becoming more common?

SANDWEG: Yes, Boris, I mean, I think if you look at the demographics of who is here, who are the undocumented people that are here in this country? We learned that most of them have been here a long time, right? Roughly 75 percent or so have been here 15 years or more.

We know there are 4.3 million children who have U.S., you know, U.S. citizen children, excuse me, who have undocumented parents. You can't do a mass deportation without hitting into that population.

I also think, though, you know, there's a lot of talk about criminal aliens, but the reality is that not everybody with a criminal history is treated equally, and I think this case is obviously a very good example. You have a very serious criminal history, obviously, but one that's very old, and you have an extended period of time where there's been no additional criminal behavior. I think two things. One is if we had an immigration system where individualized determinations on detention were made based on, you know, dangerousness or flight risk, clearly this gentleman probably would not have been detained. He has significant ties to the United States. I'm sure his family members were U.S. citizens and a criminal history that's very dated.

But unfortunately that's not the reality of our system, but more importantly is this mass deportation effort, especially of late, you know, we've shifted to where it's a volume-based approach. It's no longer more surgical focused on those criminals, but as a byproduct of that, although you're going to see a lot more arrests, there are going to be a lot more individuals, frankly, who have no criminal history whatsoever or cases like this where it's very dated.

SANCHEZ: I should let our viewers know that we reached out to Isidro Perez's family. They told us that they were too heartbroken and despondent to speak to us. I wonder, Claire, what you have heard from them and how they're doing right now.

HEALY: Well, this is an extremely difficult time for the family. You know, they are grieving. This news is very new. They just found out on Friday from officials and they, yes, they are really mourning, you know. Isidro Perez raised a daughter and six stepchildren in Key Largo. He was very close with his ex-spouse.

She described him as a beautiful friend who she spoke to nearly every day. Prior to when he was detained, she would bring him meals. They supported each other over the last four decades, really, and they raised these children together, you know, in Key Largo.

He taught them how to fish. He taught them how to swim. He, as one of his stepchildren said, really taught them survival skills.

And they, you know, as a family, care deeply about him, and this is a really difficult time. And as you mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, they have some questions, you know. Mainly, they were questions about why he was detained.

He had a long medical history, and his ex-wife said that he was raising concerns to her about not receiving his medication before he passed away. So, they want to know about that and the treatment before he died. So, they do have those questions about what led to his death. They said they were not informed he was in the hospital immediately, and so they have questions about that.

I think it's a lot to process. One thing we've been hearing repeatedly from different family members, not the Perez relatives, but other family members, is sometimes they hadn't heard from their relative in weeks.

A Canadian man died here at a federal detention center last week, and his family told us they had been trying to contact him and hadn't been able to. [15:40:00]

And so, for these family members grieving across the country, they have questions and really just a lot of mourning. And added onto that sometimes is the fact that they haven't seen their family member or spoken to them in some time.

SANCHEZ: Please do let us know if they hear from him. Claire Healy, John Sandweg. Rather, if they hear from administration officials, I should say. My mistake. Claire Healy, John Sandweg, thank you both.

HEALY: Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Ahead, Fed Chair Jerome Powell says President Trump's policies are the reason why he hasn't cut interest rates, why he's blaming the president's policies when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today some extraordinary push back against President Trump from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. For months, President Trump has ridiculed Powell for refusing to lower interest rates. The latest slight came today when the president said anybody would be better at leading the Federal Reserve than Powell.

Powell still has not directly responded to Trump's attacks, but he did blame Trump's tariffs for not dropping rates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chair would the Fed have cut more by now if it weren't for the tariffs.

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: So I do think that I think that's right. We're in effect. We went on hold when we when we saw the size of the tariffs and where and essentially all all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.

So we didn't overreact. In fact, we didn't react at all. We're simply taking some time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's turn now to CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, what else did the Fed chair say?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, at that same event, Brianna, Jerome Powell was asked if the president's pressure on him and the central bank to cut rates was affecting his ability to use monetary policy and to work within monetary policy conduct.

And he said, quote, I'm very focused on doing my job. So essentially brushing off all of that public pressure, the latest

coming just yesterday as President Trump wrote this handwritten note to Jerome Powell on this sheet of paper that essentially showed all of the world's central bank rates.

And you can see there below -- I should say, above the highlighted portion that there are 34 countries that have interest rates lower than the United States. He goes on there, written on that piece of paper to say that Jerome Powell has cost the United States billions of dollars and says that he would like interest rates to be closer to 1 percent. Currently, interest rates are more than four times that.

Jerome Powell at that same central banking forum was asked by the moderator what advice he would give to his successor, because Jerome Powell is his term is up in about 10 months. And here's how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POWELL: We're trying to deliver max -- macro stability, financial stability, economic stability, too, for the benefit of all the people. If we're going to do that successfully, we need to do it in a completely nonpolitical way, which means we don't take sides. We don't play one side against the other.

We stay out of of issues that are really not our bailiwick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: So that's a little bit more of a pushback coming from Jerome Powell on some of that very public pressure by President Trump. Jerome Powell also went on to say that he could not say whether or not there would be any cuts coming this month at the Federal Reserve's next meeting. But he did say that the door was open to potential interest rate cuts at some point during this year.

Brianna, there are four more meetings left until the end of the year. Jerome Powell there signaling that there could be a cut, just probably not at that July meeting. Most investors, a wide range of 80 percent or more, suggesting that the Federal Reserve will, in fact, hold interest rates steady this month -- Brianna.

KEILAR: He may have to brace himself for another note. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very much.

Coming up, the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, officially shuts down just after a new analysis finds its closure could contribute to 14 million deaths in the next five years. We'll have details ahead.

[15:50:07]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hailing the end of USAID, the nation's largest foreign aid agency, even as a new analysis finds that its closure could contribute to some 14 million deaths in the next five years.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler joins us now from the State Department. So, Jennifer, tell us about this new analysis and what the Secretary is saying in response.

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Boris, this analysis, which was released yesterday, really paints a potentially catastrophic picture of what could come now that USAID has been dismantled and the administration is turning away from a lot of these foreign assistance funds.

Now, this comes ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio just earlier today, applauding the fact that USAID is now operationally finished. He said in a post on Substack, quote, As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies and which advance American interests will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency.

And of course, the dismantlement of USAID was very swift, took less than six months after this administration took office. Rubio said they are going to be focused now more on trade rather than aid. And of course, this comes as that report from The Lancet is saying there could be an additional 14 million deaths that come as a result of these administration policies.

They noted that funding from USAID helps to combat mortality related to HIV, AIDS, for example, malaria, tropical diseases, nutritional deficiency, maternal mortality, tuberculosis, all these sorts of things where funding had been going to groups that were working to combat a lot of these catastrophic issues on the ground.

Now, a senior State Department official was asked about the findings earlier today, and they sort of downplayed it. They said that these were based on misassumptions about what the administration was doing, and they claimed that life saving work would continue.

But we should note that groups on the ground have spoken extensively about their experience over the past five months as this dismantlement was taking place, and they said the impact has already been devastating -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Jennifer Hansler, thank you so much for that update.

Still to come, running a race is hard enough. How about doing it as a T-Rex?

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Fans at a popular horse track in Washington State saw something a bit different enter the starting gates over the weekend, all part of a race 66 million years in the making.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And T-Rex is away, and they all came away to a beautiful race --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Away they go. More than 300 dinosaur doppelgangers from 15 states competed in the T-Rex World Championship races on Sunday. Roaring competitors were split into men's, women's, and kids divisions.

KEILAR: And check this out, they fell from the sky as well in a prehistoric parachute race. This event actually started in 2017 as a team building activity for a pest control company. But as you can see, it has evolved as it should have, and as the dinosaurs did not into something so much bigger. That looks like fun.

[16:00:00]

SANCHEZ: It looks like a blast. It's very difficult though. It seems like not very aerodynamic. You see some of the heads going back.

KEILAR: Look, the whole point of those sort of puffy dinosaur costumes is that when you move in them, you look hilarious.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: And that's why they're fun on Halloween. That's why they're fun on parachutes.

SANCHEZ: It doesn't look like they're wearing the heads while parachuting, which is probably for the best.

KEILAR: Safety first. Safety first, even as a dinosaur --

SANCHEZ: Almost always.

KEILAR: -- races.

SANCHEZ: Almost always.

KEILAR: "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END